People check the destruction following an Israeli strike that hit the home of a Palestinian family in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 23, 2025. (Credit: Bashar Taleb/AFP)
At least 75 percent of all Gaza households do not that enough water to drink, UNICEF's deputy executive director told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday.
"In Gaza, following 20 months of conflict, more than 70 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure has been either destroyed or damaged, and at least 75 per cent of households report that they do not have enough water to drink," Ted Chaiban said during his address. "In parallel, repeated blockades have prohibited the entry into the Gaza Strip of fuel and critical components to run water facilities."
He stressed the effects of water shortages on overall health, underlying health conditions, hygiene and the dangers of water collection in desperate times.
"Currently, the desalination plant in southern Gaza is working at reduced capacity on backup generators," Chaiban explained. "We urgently need the power supply to the desalination plant to be switched back on to provide at least 600.000 internally displaced Gazans in the south of the Strip with access to safe water."
Israel recently acquiesced to allowing "basic amounts" of supplies into Gaza after more than two and a half months of total blockade, during which Palestinians struggled to survive on ever-dwindling supplies and children started dying from malnutrition.
As the blockade dragged on it caused an uproar in the international community which, in recent weeks, has been laying the pressure on Israel in a manner not yet seen since the war started in October 2023. However, the trucks that have managed to get into Gaza are a fraction of what humanitarian organizations say is necessary for feeding a starved population of around two million people.
